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WET INSULATION AND ROOF DEGRADATION FOUND BY STRUCTURESCAN SURVEY FOR SCHOOL DISTRICT U-46

With a school district consisting of more than fifty buildings, Illinois School District U-46 needed an assessment of their roofing requirements. With school buildings dating back to the late 1800's, School District U-46 faced many unique challenges. Only minimum maintenance budgets had been implemented by the district for many years. Management realized that this was not a cost-effective approach to their facilities program. In order to prioritize their maintenance and replacement budgets, they chose seven of their schools with the worst leakage conditions to begin this process.

StructureTec was contracted to perform a visual roof evaluation, as well as an infrared StructureScan® Survey. These services were performed to determine how much wet insulation was present and how much previous degradation had occurred. The Survey included performing a "state-of-the-art" infrared scan on the low slope roof areas. All deficient areas were marked on the roof surface and random test cuts were taken for verification.

Schematics were developed for documentation and future contractor bidding. This process revealed that the majority of the roofs exhibited retrofit roofing, whereby single-ply roofing was installed directly over the existing built-up roofing. In the retrofit process, the existing wet, saturated insulation and substrate had not been addressed. This was compounded by the fact that the retrofits were mechanically attached and therefore had been compromised by the wet insulation from the time of installation. As a result, the majority of these retrofits were less than ten years old and had already experienced premature failure.

Of the buildings surveyed, over 50% of the roofs required major remediation or replacement within the next five years. An additional challenge arose from the fact that the district had a very limited initial budget and lacked the funds to address all of the immediate areas of concern. Areas which could be restored through remedial repair and replacing wet insulation were delineated.

The StructureScan survey's scientific approach and accuracy allowed School District U-46 to pinpoint and prioritize the remedial work to be completed, thus eliminating guesswork. The areas which absolutely required replacement were strategically prioritized into a long-range plan. In conclusion, all of the information obtained was used to support the district in establishing a bond issue process fund. These efforts enable them to undertake all the necessary capital projects and achieve the greatest return on investment.